A personal exploration of autism from a brother’s perspective, including family relationships, philosophy, neuroscience, mental health history and ethics

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Portrait, Mike and Mom

I was thumbing through my (unpublished) book about my early life with my older brother Mike. He is autistic, low functioning and has never spoken. When he was still at home, we used to go camping. My father must have taken this picture of Mom holding Mike. One can tell there is something amiss. Perhaps, since I know my brother’s story, it is only obvious to me.

Mike and MomPhotograph on Bond Paper

I had been perseverating on exploring the visual and emotional meaning of photographs from the last visit my younger brother, mother and I had Mike (The Visit). [Note – this post may contain triggers as I was very distraught when I wrote it; no disrespect was intended.] I began with realistic renderings and progressed to more abstract representations (Paintings from Last Visit with Mike, Abstract – Brotherly Love, Under Observation). My goal was to distill the emotional content into the most simple visual form.

Today’s post is the beginning of that same process with a photograph from early day’s with Mike.

Here are a couple of sketches:

Mike and Mom Sketch 19″x12″ 60# Ivory Drawing Paper

Mike and Mom, Sketch 29″x12″ 60# Ivory Drawing Paper

Here is my watercolor rendering of that photograph:

Mike and Mom9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

I have always had a hard time drawing accurate likenesses of my mother and today is no exception. However, I am skilled at drawing expressions on my brother Mike’s face, perhaps because I study them so much.